The visualization software Met.3D can be used for interactive visual exploration of meteorological phenomena in ERA5. This page provides a short guide towards using Met.3D for interactive 3D exploration visual analysis of ERA5 in Metdata.3D.
Introduction
The ERA5 reanalysis dataset (ECMWF Reanalysis 5th Generation) is the most recent global reanalysis data covering the time-period from 1950 until today. The data is obtained by combining a numerical weather prediction model with empirical observations (4DVar data assimilation in CY41R2 of ECMWFs IFS). It contains estimates of atmospheric variables, such as air temperature, pressure, and wind, as well as surface variables such as rainfall and soil moisture. The meteorological variables are available with hourly temporal resolution on a global data grid with approximate horizontal resolution of 31km and 137 vertical model levels.
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Met.3D can be used for interactive visual exploration of meteorological phenomena in ERA5. Available methods used for this visual data exploration study Examples of available visualization methods include:
- sliding of horizontal and vertical cross-sections through 3D data-cubes
- computation of 3-D isosurfaces with interactive variation of isovalues
- direct volume rendering of clouds using raycasting
- flow visualization via wind barbs and trajectories.
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Step by step procedure
The following steps are performed as part of this studynecessary for analysing ERA5 data with Met.3D.
- ERA5 data acquisition
- Pre-processing of ERA5 data to a regular grid (Met.3D currently requires data on regular grids)
- Visual exploration of ERA5 using the features graphical user interface of Met.3D
1 ERA5 data acquisition
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2 Pre-processing of ERA5 to a regular grid
Met.3D requires gridded meteorological (simulation) data on a regular lat-lon regularly spaced grid.
- The data handling section of this documentation provides an overview about the supported data and file types.
- If you download ERA5 data on a regular grid, as provided by the ECMWFS download options, you should be able to directly load the data into Met.3D without any other processing, and start your interactive visual data exploration.
- If the data is on a Gaussian or Spectral grid, you need to interpolate the data to a regular grid before you can analyse it using Met.3D.
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